


Lonely Rivers Sigh

by shoemaster



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Conduit Fic, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 00:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoemaster/pseuds/shoemaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I could," Noah says.</p>
<p>"Could what?" Gansey asks.</p>
<p>"Be your Whoopi Goldberg. Your go between."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lonely Rivers Sigh

**Author's Note:**

  * For [caitthecursed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caitthecursed/gifts).



> One of those 2 am ideas that won't go away, even though it's a lot harder by the light of day.
> 
> Title from Unchained Melody, because I couldn't help myself.

The late summer sun is filtering through a window that hasn't been cleaned in decades while Noah sits in Gansey's desk chair, spinning idly. Gansey is stretched out on his bed with a large pile of books next to him. It's only Noah and Gansey at Monmouth Manufacturing this afternoon. Adam is working, Ronan is spending time with Matthew and Blue is probably at 300 Fox Way helping her aunts and cousins carry on the family business without Maura. Noah is fairly certain Gansey's read each of those books twice before, but there's the unlikely possibility that he missed something the first two times, so he's going through them again.

Maybe that's why Noah doesn't worry about interrupting him when he says, “I kissed Blue.”

Noah hadn't meant to say it like that. He hadn't meant to say it at all, but now that he's watching Gansey's features shift from surprised to confused and then hurt before settling into a carefully arranged non-emotion, he really wishes he hadn't.

“I see,” Gansey says. “Ah, when was this?”

“Before her mom disappeared, before Mr. Grey.”

Noah is so grateful for the chance to explain. Even if Blue had more been Adam's at the time – not that Blue belongs to any one, she's made that abundantly clear – Noah knows she and Gansey have this _thing_ that makes Noah uncomfortable with Gansey not knowing.

“Well, Jane is her own person,” Gansey says, picking his book back up and staring at the pages.

Noah waits, and sure enough a moment later, Gansey asks in a quiet voice. “What was it like?”

_Sad_ , Noah thinks immediately, but that isn't what Gansey wants to hear and it doesn't seem fair to Blue to tell him that.

Noah wonders if he should mention that it was here on Gansey's bed. Probably not.

Noah rolls the chair towards the bed. “I – well, it was...” he trails off, not knowing how to put it into words, and Gansey is looking at him expectantly.

"It was just... like this," Noah sighs, and before he can really think about what he's doing, he leans forward and presses his lips to Gansey's. It's soft and hesitant, Gansey is obviously startled, but the thing about being dead is that Noah isn't really afraid of getting hit, even if Gansey were a hitting kind of guy. Honestly, Noah expects him to pull back and straighten his invisible tie before pretending it never happened.

But he doesn't.

After that moment's hesitation, Gansey leans into it, pressing his lips to Noah's and raising a hand to rest on his shoulder. Maybe because Noah practiced recently with Blue, it goes better than their initial attempts. It's less sloppy and slobbery, for which Noah is grateful. He's focused on the kiss, wondering how far Gansey will go with this before stopping, so he doesn't hear the door opening until a surprised gasp cuts through the quiet room.

"Noah?"

"Jane!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, I should have knocked." She looks hurt and confused, and it's even worse than when Gansey looked like that.

Blue is halfway out the door again before Noah says, "Wait!"

"Jane it was just -" Gansey's on his feet, trying to stop her.

"It's none of my business," Blue says, but they all know that's a lie.

"Blue -"

"I wanted to know what it was like," Gansey says.

Blue's head jerks up and her eyes flit between the two of them, until Noah says, "I told him about when we..."

"Oh."

Gansey reaches for her hand, gently tugging her back into the room. The look they're sharing is why Noah _had_ to tell Gansey. He can draw energy from Blue, but when Gansey touches her, it's like her output triples. He hasn't bothered to tell her that yet, it just seems cruel.

"It was months ago," Blue says. "Did you think it'd be like he was Whoopi Goldberg or something?"

"I think I'm supposed to be Patrick Swayze," Noah points out.

"You're taller than he was," Gansey says.

*

Blue settles near the foot of the bed, and Noah settles next to her creating a buffer between her and Gansey for which she is a little grateful. Blue doesn't want Gansey to kiss her, because she doesn't want him to die. But if he's supposed to be her true love or whatever, perhaps it's not totally unreasonable for her to not like seeing him kissing Noah instead.

"I could," Noah says, distracting Blue from her pity party.

"Could what?" Gansey asks.

"Be your Whoopi Goldberg, your go-between."

Blue waits for Gansey to say it's a ridiculous idea, or for Noah to withdraw the offer. She's not even sure how he means for it to work. When Orla was thirteen, she spent a lot of time talking at Blue about the logistics of that scene, but Blue mostly tuned her out, because she was never going to kiss anyone; she never imagined a conversation like this.

“Are you sure?” Gansey asks, bumping his knee against Noah's. “You don't have to.”

Noah blushes a little. “It's not like it's a hardship or anything.”

“Jane?”

“Do you really think it's a good idea?”

“I don't know that it's a bad one,” Gansey says. She's pretty sure he'd call that obfuscating, if he wanted to drop one of his ten dollar words right now. Fortunately for all of them, he doesn't and neither does she.

Her life has been in a holding pattern since Maura disappeared – Maura who would think this was a terrible idea and might just reappear from wherever she's gone to tell Blue how terrible an idea it is – and maybe that's why she nods. “All right then.”

None of them know quite how to start this, and when Noah leans in and kisses Blue, she keeps one eye open and trained on Gansey. He looks like he can't decide whether or not he wants to look away, so far from the self assured Aglionby boy she so despised the first time they spoke. So Blue reaches for his hand again, holding it tight while she kisses Noah.

It's a little weird, but Blue's used to weird, and Noah's been dead for seven years, so really it's just on Gansey to stop all of this, but when Noah pulls back from Blue and turns to Gansey, he squeezes her hand and leans in to meet Noah half way.

Now that it isn't a surprise, now that she knows why it's happening, Blue can appreciate the aesthetics of two of her Raven Boys kissing. Noah seems more solid than she can ever remember him being, the smudgy look fading as Gansey's free hand cups his face while Blue leans against his back.

The three of them crowd closer and closer together on the bed as Noah moves between them, and eventually Gansey's hand falls to her hip, his skin warm against hers where her t-shirt has ridden up. It's a sharp contrast to the cool touch of Noah's lips to hers and she can't help but shiver. She watches the way Gansey's mouth moves against Noah's neck and remembers that moment in Cabeswater, when they first acknowledged this thing between them. The air is heavy like it was then, but it has a different sort of weight to it, charged with something that has nothing to do with ley lines.

She turns Noah's head so she can kiss him while Gansey kisses his neck and her chin brushes against Gansey's cheek. He jerks a little and her eyes snap open to meet his. It's stupid to get this close, to dance so close to the line, but it's intoxicating, too. His hand on her hip slides up a little further under her shirt and she sighs against Noah's mouth. He's obviously enjoying his role in this, as he rocks back and forth between them both, eager for their touch.

Blue feels Gansey's hand cup her cheek while she kisses Noah, his thumb nearly brushing the spot where their lips meet, and she almost turns her head to meet it before jerking back. Gansey meets her eye looking chagrined.

“Sorry Blue, I shouldn't -”

Someone probably would have mentioned if kissing someone's _hand _would count as the first kiss, but Blue isn't willing to take that chance. “It's ok,” she says. “But I should probably go.”__

__“Before I do something stupid,” Gansey says._ _

__“Or me,” Blue says. She's known about this her whole life, she's the one that will kill him, so she's going to have to be the one in control._ _

__“Sorry,” Noah says softly. “I didn't mean to make it worse.”_ _

__He looks smudgy in a different way than usual, now, and it make Blue smile a little. “You didn't.” She leans in to kiss his cheek, and squeezes Gansey's hand. “I should go home, I've got work later.”_ _

__“We'll be by,” Gansey says. “If that's ok?”_ _

__“I'd never deprive you guys of pizza,” Blue says, putting on a casual smile. It'll ruin everything if they wallow in this afternoon, and she can't have this fall apart, too. At least not until they find her mother. “I'll see you guys later.”_ _

__“Bye, Blue.”_ _

__“Until then, Jane.”_ _


End file.
